¿Que?
23rd September 2010, 22:18
What do you guys think about the use of passive voice. It is my understanding that other languages, like Spanish or Portuguese, don't necessarily have a problem with the use of passive voice. Yet in the US, there is a general consensus that passive voice should not be used.
In the US, the rationale is that use of the passive voice can be used to avoid taking responsibility for the action of the verb. So we can say things like, "mistakes were made" or "civilians were killed" instead of "the army made mistakes" or "the navy killed civilians."
It's a good argument, but part of me thinks that this whole active voice thing is something like USian resistance to the metric system, where practically the whole world has accepted it as standard usage, but we're still using inches, feet and yards.
So is the US correct in avoiding passive voice, or are they perpetuating a form of discourse lacking flare and passion.
In the US, the rationale is that use of the passive voice can be used to avoid taking responsibility for the action of the verb. So we can say things like, "mistakes were made" or "civilians were killed" instead of "the army made mistakes" or "the navy killed civilians."
It's a good argument, but part of me thinks that this whole active voice thing is something like USian resistance to the metric system, where practically the whole world has accepted it as standard usage, but we're still using inches, feet and yards.
So is the US correct in avoiding passive voice, or are they perpetuating a form of discourse lacking flare and passion.